Opinion | Two years on, why most Covid-19 conventional wisdom is wrong
- Policies that aim to curb a virus that is already becoming endemic, at great cost to the economy, human relations and our mental health, just won’t succeed
- There is one thing we should be doing, though: encouraging vaccination. And Covid-19 policy should unapologetically favour the vaccinated majority
As we enter the pandemic’s third year, you should know that most Covid-19 conventional wisdom is wrong and most coronavirus policies are dumb. The advent of vaccines has transformed Covid-19 from a medical disaster into a sociological disaster – a jumble of fear, confusion and bad politics.
Here is all you need to know about Covid-19: first, globally available vaccines provide temporary antibody protection against infection; second, vaccines confer longer-lasting T cell protection against serious illness and death; and third, Covid-19 is endemic.
That is not hard to grasp, but the world cannot seem to process it. Instead, we get endless catastrophising. Here’s why the following Covid-19 conventional wisdom is wrong.
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Omicron variant driving record-breaking Covid-19 infection rates in the US and Europe
New variants are worrying
In the unlikely event that a lethal new variant poses a challenge to T cell immunity, improved vaccines will come to the rescue.
More testing is needed
Why? It is not like mass testing has halted Covid-19’s global spread. Covid-19 is endemic in most places, and highly contagious variants like Omicron ensure that it will eventually become endemic everywhere. Tracking a disease that is everywhere is pointless.
